The proliferation of chain stores across the country is turning the UK into a series of "clone towns", a think tank has warned.

The New Economics Foundation (NEF) said local stores are being driven out of towns as chains "spring up like weeds".

Regeneration and planning decisions have created a retail environment hostile to small, independent businesses, the NEF argued.

It has asked the public to take part in a nationwide survey of town centres.

In its report, Clone Town Britain, the NEF says that once distinctive towns are now losing their character.

They want to find out how small businesses are faring in the modern marketplace and have asked members of the public to take pictures of the most "cloned" parts of their towns - the results will be published next year.

"Outside a few metropolitan hotspots we are moving from 'Cool Britannia' to 'Clone Town Britain'," said NEF policy director Andrew Simms.

Identikit shopping

Research by the NEF suggests that between 1997 and 2002, specialist stores like butchers, bakers and fishmongers shut at the rate of 50 a week.

Also, nearly a thousand communities were left without access to a local bank and 20 traditional pubs were closing every month.

Suddenly you turn round and your town is looking the same as every other town

Andrew Simms, NEF

It claims that the result is a loss of choice for consumers, with identikit stores popping up in town centres.

The think tank's policy director Andrew Simms told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Local shops tend to act like the social glue that holds communities together in a way that big retail giants can't.

"Clone town Britain kind of creeps up on you - suddenly you turn round and your town is looking the same as every other town."

The think tank also says that the increasing trend toward small scale "metro" or "express" versions of big supermarkets are squeezing distinctive local shops out of the market - leaving shoppers no choices when it comes to shopping.

Community service

Mr Simms also said that chain stores have "the marketing budgets, political contacts and resources" that gives them an advantage over local shops.

But, also speaking on the Today programme, Sean Rickard, from the Cranfield School of Management, said that supermarkets serve the community.

Is the humble local shop set for extinction?

"The truth of the matter is that supermarkets offer a much greater choice.

"There are many people in this country - people who find it difficult to make ends meet - who choose a cheaper convenient alternative.

"If supermarkets have grown big it's by the choices made by individuals - not by anyone forcing anyone through their doors," he said.

In a sample of random towns and cities the NEF found several which had achieved clone status - such as Guildford in Surrey, Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk and Gloucester.

The report also suggests that behind the increasing homogenisation of the high street are wider trends destroying diversity in arts and culture.

Sheila Terry, the town manager of Birkenhead, which is criticised in the report, told BBC News 24: "National stores are very important. We need those because that's what people expect when people come into the town.

"But in Birkenhead we've still got over 45 individual businesses which makes us very special."